Lorne Torres

This tour was pretty enjoyable. They take you on a river raft ride down the Great River. Beautiful scenery and very quiet. Our raft captain was Sherman. He said he's been rafting for 16 years. It's amazing how they have to make their own rafts every 10 months. Each time a river tour has ended, they have to bring the raft back upstream manually (which takes 2 hours). They get paid 7 American dollars per trip (45 minutes down and 2 hours up). Good thing 1 American dollar equals 60 Jamaican. We gave the guy an extra $10.00 at the end. Along the way, he showed us the “touch me not” plants. When you touch them, they close up and open back up in 5-10 minutes. They were amazing! I've never seen anything like it. He also showed us the (I think he said) “Fifi flower”. Once you take it apart, you can use the inside part of it to create a very loud whistle by putting it between your lips. Then he showed us a natural waterfall which the locals drink from. It started to rain mid-tour which added to the beauty (since it was light rain). But, then it started getting a little cold. Good thing it stopped about 5 minutes later.

After the raft ride, it was off to watch a guy climb a coconut tree and taste the fresh coconut milk and meat. I love fresh coconut. It's great for your blood pressure, heart, liver, and kidney cleansing. The locals say it's great for hangovers (which I’m sure is due to the natural electrolytes in the water). They also say “One a day keeps the doctor away” as we would normally say for apples.

Time for some more tasting around the corner where we sat and listened to them talk about Blue Mountain coffee, bananas (and banana rum), and coconut. We were able to taste banana liqueur, and FRESH Pina Colada. And when I say fresh, I mean it was the best I’ve ever had. Only natural ingredients were used. No syrup and other garbage like that. They said if any of your friends want the recipe, they need to go to Jamaica.

After that, we met the “banana man”. He drove us on a tractor around the banana plantation. He described every part of the banana plant, from the base to the flower and then he sung us a song “daylight come and me wanna go home”. No part of the banana or tree goes unused. Just how it should be.

Time for our lunch, which was a small but great-tasting authentic Jamaican buffet. Barbecued chicken, rice and beans, coleslaw, rolls, and red punch (I couldn't tell if it had alcohol in it or not because I had already consumed a few drinks).

After lunch, it was off to shop downtown. We noted an interesting thing about this part of the tour. After exiting the bus, one of the guides said that we should “shop only in this direction” pointing to the Indian/Pakistani shops and not the local Jamaican shops (obviously the tour guides are getting paid on the side from the owners of the stores they urged us to shop in). We also came to find that the shops the guide recommended were charging more for their merchandise. We had a few locals come up to us and tell us what was going on. They said things are cheaper buying from locals and not the shops our tour guide was recommending. After getting back to the terminal building and telling some of the local bartenders, they seemed ticked off and with good reason. Sadly, this was another case of good old human greed at its finest. We found this out after buying from the Indian stores. On the other hand, I was approached by 3 locals asking me if I wanted some smoke and one even went into detail telling me he had black hash. We aren't in Kansas any more Toto.

Like most of these tours, everyone wants your money. From the Banana guy, to the guy making the pina coladas, the tour guide, and even the guy who climbs the coconut tree. So be prepared to bust out the tips.

Overall a very nice tour. I would recommend trying it once and I'd go back for the rafting more than once.

Bar in the Jamaican Terminal building

This bar has a nice little secret. The beer is cheaper than on the ship, and they have these meat pies called “Juici Beef patties” for $1.50. Man, those things are addictive. We had two of them and I could have easily had more.

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